Last week, a panel of faculty members from across the Urbana-Champaign campus narrowed the running to four in an effort to award the most innovative student on campus. The $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Illinois Student Prize is funded through a partnership with the Lemelson-MIT Program, which has awarded the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize to outstanding student inventors at MIT since 1995.
A distinguished panel of scientists, technologists, engineers, and entrepreneurs interviewed finalists, and a winner will be announced and awarded the prize at a ceremony scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on March 3, 2010 in the auditorium of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), on the University of Illinois campus. The awards ceremony is open to the public, and will be immediately followed by a public reception.
The finalists, like the selection team, represent a variety of areas of expertise.
Kira Barton, graduate student, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, College of Engineering
Barton was part of a team that initially developed electrohydrodynamic jet (e-jet) into a high-resolution printing process, and has since created a desktop system that uses the e-jet printing technology. The design is made to be a low-cost, compact e-jet system that uses an electronic sensing technique to enable e-jet printing. The creation of this system was pursued because of its potential to fabricate high-resolution patterned devices in electronics. The availability of this affordable, compact and user friendly system is critical to the transition of this technology into the mainstream manufacturing scene.
Scott Daigle, graduate student, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, College of Engineering
Daigle has taken the initiative to develop a wheelchair prototype (Intelliwheels) that uses continuously variable transmission (CVT) in each wheel to help the user of the chair move more efficiently with the ability to shift gears according to terrain. It does this unnoticeably with the CVTs' ability to provide an infinite number of gear ratios and an onboard microprocessor which senses the velocity and tilt of the chair to choose the appropriate ratio. The chair was created to help users exert less energy when commuting from place to place without having a learning curve to the new product.
Steven Diebold, senior, industrial design, College of Fine and Applied Arts
Diebold created his product, Drop Point, when he was working with a fellow student who had lost the use of his arms in a tragic accident. Steven's design is an alternative to a head-pointer which replaces the functions of the arms. The design of the Drop Point is more compact, inconspicuous and affordable than other options.
The product was created to give users more independence and freedom from the outside help that other models require by making it easy to put on and take off with the use of the user's neck muscles. While other models are placed over the user's head, the Drop Point rests on their neck and can be easily picked up and taken off with a scoop of their chin. Diebold's product will help people complete basic functions as well as give them an inexpensive alternative to a necessary device.
Jonathan Naber, junior, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, College of Engineering
Guided by his passion for helping those less fortunate, Naber has developed an affordable prosthetic arm for people in underdeveloped countries with the help of his team, Illini Prosthetics Team. Putting aside his initial focus to make a state-of-the-art prosthetic arm with electronic components, Naber has created an arm from recycled materials that is extremely functional, durable and easily manufactured. In his development of this product, Naber will travel to Guatemala in the summer of 2010 to field test the prototype at a prosthetics clinic. He is currently creating a plan to start a production facility in a developing east African nation that will supply prosthetic arms to amputee populations in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
About the Lemelson-MIT Program
The Lemelson-MIT Program recognizes outstanding inventors, encourages sustainable new solutions to real world problems, and enables and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention. It accomplishes this mission through outreach activities and annual awards and grants, including the prestigious $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize and Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams, a non-competitive, team-based invention experience for high school students. Jerome H. Lemelson, one of the world’s most prolific inventors, and his wife, Dorothy, founded the non-profit Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994.
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Contact: Rhiannon Clifton, Technology Entrepreneur Center, 217/244-4035.
If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, Engineering Communications Office, 217/244-7716, editor.